Job adverts fall for fourth consecutive month

Job adverts fall for fourth consecutive month - The West Australian

UPDATE 3.05pm Job advertisements have recorded a fourth consecutive month of falls, as the Australian job market appears to be softening.

Job advertising fell 0.8 per cent in July, after a drop of 1.1 per cent in June, the ANZ job advertisements survey showed today.

The data places advertisements 9.1 per cent weaker than a year ago.

The weakness is most noticeable in newspaper advertisements, which fell 3.2 per cent compared with June, while internet job adverts dropped 0.7 per cent.

Internet job adverts were 8.6 per cent below their level of a year ago, and have also dropped for four consecutive months.

ANZ head of Australian economics and property research Ivan Colhoun said that strength in the mining sector had not detracted from a general weakening of labour demand in Australia.

"Online advertisements have trended lower in all states and territories, including in WA, Queensland and the Northern Territory, the regions most exposed to the mining boom,” he said.

"Job advertising, however, does remain considerably stronger in these regions than in other states and the ACT, though advertising in NSW and SA continues to show some resilience."

Mr Colhoun said he expected this trend to be reflected in official labour force data due on Thursday.

"Recent months’ data have remained volatile clouding the assessment of the true trends for both employment growth and unemployment,” he said.

"The slight declining trend for job advertising in recent months, together with a pick-up in job losses due to restructuring and businesses productivity initiatives, is likely to be consistent with a slight further rise in the unemployment rate."

ANZ expected unemployment to rise to 5.3 per cent in July, from 5.2 per cent in the previous month